Gore calls Bradley political quitter

By LARRY BIVINS and CHUCK RAASCH, Gannett News Service

ALBANY, N.Y. - Campaigning in New York where he is in a dead heat with his Democratic rival, Al Gore promised more for working women as surrogates intensified attacks on Bill Bradley as a lazy political quitter who watches from the safety of the bench.

New York's top Democrats, after meeting with Gore in Albany, tried to rally the vice president's struggling campaign. They gave him credit for America's booming economy and lauded his record on education.

And on a day that Gore was endorsed by a major teachers' union for fighting the good fight, Gore's surrogates said Bradley, a former senator from New Jersey, essentially quit politics in 1997 when he left the Senate.

Gore's ''quitter'' strategy is aimed primarily at Democratic activists who participate in party primaries - and it is not without risk. Questioning the political system may not be a liability in an era when there is distrust of the Washington establishment. And, on the stump, Gore himself has begun talking more about a period in his own life - when he came back from Vietnam in 1972 - when he, too, questioned the validity of American politics.

Polls show Gore locked in a tight race with Bradley in New York, which will hold its primary on the pivotal March 7 ''Super Tuesday'' next year.

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and about 15 members of the Legislature joined 150 supporters at Spitzer's rented, 180-acre farm southeast of Albany.

''Let's support Al Gore because Al Gore was there when we needed him, when other people walked off the court,'' McCall said. Bradley, a former basketball star at Princeton and for the NBA's New York Knicks, served 18 years in the Senate before retiring in 1997.

Spitzer likened Bradley to a basketball player who ''puts up his hand and says 'Coach, coach, I'm quitting. I'm lazy, I'm tired. I don't like this team anymore ... I don't want to fight.' He goes and sits at the end of the bench.

''Who do you want to be captain of the team - the guy who quit, who didn't want to fight, or Al Gore?'' said Spitzer.

Bradley spokesman Tony Wyche attacked the quitter characterization.

''After three very distinguished terms in the U.S. Senate, with accomplishments like empowerment zones, tax reform, I don't think it's fair at all to criticize him for his decision to pursue something else,'' he said.

In a speech later in New York, Gore pledged to make it easier for women to strike a balance between work and family.

''I will work to make the largest single investment in child care in history,'' Gore told about 600 enthusiastic supporters at a women-for-Gore fund-raising luncheon at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Guests paid between $125 and $1,000 to hear the vice president. The event was expected to bring in $100,000 for his campaign, which surprisingly raised less money than Bradley's over the past three months.

In addition to increasing child care, Gore said he would provide ''high-quality'' preschool for every child, work to eliminate the ''marriage tax'' penalty for working couples, and encourage employers to provide ''family-friendly'' workplaces.

''If you do not understand the fatigue of America's working women, you do not need to be president of the United States,'' he said.

In his luncheon speech and earlier at the breakfast rally at Spitzer's farm, Gore also sniped at the education proposals of GOP front-runner George W. Bush: the Texas governor also was in the state urging education reform.

''Bear in mind that his state ranks 45 out of the 50 states in SAT scores,'' Gore said.

Bush has proposed cutting federal funds for schools that do a poor job, allowing parents to use the money as vouchers for private schools.

Bush said states should get more freedom from Washington if they raise student test scores, and wants to consolidate 60 federal elementary and secondary education proposals into five.

His defenders say educational improvement begins in elementary school - and that minority students in fourth and eighth grades in Texas have posted large gains in reading and math test scores.

In an important endorsement, Gore snared the support of the million-member American Federation of Teachers.

''He has fought the tough fight - and never walked away when the stakes were high,'' AFT President Sandra Feldman said, continuing the Bradley-as-quitter theme. ''Starting today, AFT members across the country will roll up their sleeves to ensure that Al Gore's vision for America becomes a reality.''

The endorsement could help Gore break a union logjam - several are torn over whether to back him now, or delay endorsing as Bradley has urged. Included is the largest union, the AFL-CIO, which meets next week in Los Angeles.

Gore's supporters are trying to portray him as a new man - he is moving his headquarters from Washington to Nashville, cutting a ribbon at the new digs Wednesday to try to rally staff and volunteers.

''He's going to emphasize the importance of leaving Washington and going out into the country,'' said press secretary Chris Lehane. ''He also will talk about what Tennessee has meant to him.''